One of the most noticeable features of University Drive at West Texas A&M University is the clutter of cars that line the straight street on weekdays.

Some time in the future, the parking lots that flank the road will be replaced by green lawns dotted with trees and lined with walkways.The planned change to University Drive, the most visible entrance to the campus as you drive into Canyon on 23rd Street, is just a taste of the facelift planned for WT in the coming years.

Earlier this year — the university’s 100th anniversary — administrators finalized a plan that outlines the future of the campus while they celebrated its past. The 30-year master plan calls for an eventual enrollment of 15,000 students, renovations of unused and older buildings, additional on-campus housing and expansion of degree offerings.

WT President J. Patrick O’Brien said the ambitious project will ensure the university meets the educational demands of the Texas Panhandle.

“For Texas to be competitive in today’s global economy, we must increase the proportion of the population that has earned baccalaureate or higher degrees,” he wrote in an e-mail. “In October 2000, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board adopted a strategic plan ... that specified four goals: close the gaps in student participation, student success, excellence and research.”

Work begins

WT officials have put some of its master plan objectives in motion by starting a few of the construction and renovation projects scheduled to be completed within the next five years.

Those projects include Buffalo Sports Park, a $21.8 million sports complex, and a $32.5 million residence hall for freshmen and sophomores.

The sports complex should be complete by November while the dorm is scheduled to open in fall 2011.

The handful of improvements planned for the next five years will cost the university about $100 million, which will come from students, the state, the university and private donations.

Gary Barnes, WT’s vice president for business and finance, said the success of the master plan’s other projects will depend on enrollment.

“The concept was to identify when we would need those buildings,” he said.

WT’s fall enrollment, currently at 7,843, has grown since 2005, when it was 7,294.

Barnes said immediate projects, such as the sports complex and underclassmen dorm, will accommodate the current student population.

He said future projects will be necessary when the student population increases to 9,000 students and later to 15,000 students.

Eye toward the future

Future projects outlined in the master plan include a renovation of the university’s old education building, expansion of the campus library and construction of a classroom building.

While the new and renovated buildings will accommodate growing enrollment, the master plan wasn’t drawn up with just students in mind.

“There are three objectives associated with recent and planned capital improvements: enhancement of the learning environment for students and faculty, improvement in the quality of campus life and accommodations for a larger student body,” O’Brien wrote. One of the planned improvements has both aesthetic and practical value.

According to maps and renderings, the number of trees on campus will grow considerably during the next 30 years.

They will line the campus’ edges and surround all parking lots, buildings and walkways.

Barnes said the campus’ master planner told the university the addition of several more trees will help keep the campus shaded and cooler in the summer.

He said the trees will also create wind breaks, adding every 10 feet of trees provides 40 feet of wind breaks.

Barnes has no cost estimates for the remainder of the master plan. The projects have no specific timeline, making it difficult to calculate future inflation and construction costs.

New degree programs

In addition to the renovation and construction efforts, the master plan calls for new degree programs.

WT offers a doctorate in agricultural science, but O’Brien said the university is developing proposals for doctorates in educational leadership and cultural studies.

WT expanded its engineering department this semester by launching its civil engineering program.

The university started its engineering program in 2003 with the establishment of a mechanical engineering degree and is looking to add environmental and electrical engineering within the next three or four years.

WT Provost James Hallmark said the university would like to add a degree in nuclear engineering in the next five to 15 years. He said Pantex’s presence would help support a nuclear engineering program.“Certainly in the field of engineering, our assumption is that the direction of that would go toward environmental and electrical engineering, but as you move towards that, there’s considerable interest in nuclear engineering,” Hallmark said.

WT’s biological sciences faculty is also starting some research into extremophiles, tiny organisms that can survive in extreme environments and conditions.

Although research is still in the early stages, Hallmark said the organisms can change what biologists know about diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.

Online business is another area administrators are eyeing for future programs.

“We already have a very strong presence in e-commerce, but we don’t actually have degree programs,” Hallmark said.

“That’s something we think we’ll see developed in a very short time frame, possibly the next few years.”

Hallmark said part of the master plan’s goal is to help students who do not have the money to attend a larger university.

“It doesn’t matter where the student is from. If they’re really bright, they’re the kind of person that this country or world needs,” he said. “We got to provide that opportunity within our society and region.”

West Texas A&M University’s 30-year planThis spring, West Texas A&M University published its 30-year master plan. The initiative generally calls for an expanding enrollment to 15,000, with 11,000 by 2014; renovating unused buildings; constructing on-campus housing and expanding degree offerings. Major projects outlined in the plan include:The $21.8 million Buffalo Sports Park, which is scheduled be fully completed by November.The $32.5 million Centennial Hall, a dorm exclusively for freshmen and sophomores. This residence hall should open next fall.Doctorate programs in educational leadership and cultural studies. WT currently offers one doctorate program, agricultural sciences.Adding environmental and electrical engineering programs, eventually creating a separate college for all the university’s engineering programs.Constructing dorms to accommodate more students. University officials want campus housing to lodge 30 percent of undergraduates.

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With a goal of reaching an enrollment of 15,000 by the year 2020, administration at West Texas A&M University created a master plan for campus infrastructure.

Dr. J. Pat O’Brien, university president, said that the last master plan was completed in the 1980s when enrollment was declining instead of increasing.

The most recent project from that plan was the construction of the pedestrian mall.

“We’re looking forward to more growth. The state has made it very clear it wants to increase participation of citizens going to college and the number of graduates. We have to play our part in doing so,” he said.

The new master plan is based on the goal of being a “first choice institution” for students, employees and employers of graduates.

The No. 1 goal is to make the campus a student centered environment that is safe and secure.

“We wanted to enhance the campus life experience where students can excel,” O’Brien said.

While there is currently enough student housing for 19 percent of the undergraduate student body, O’Brien said he hopes to increase that to 30 percent.

With the demolition of old and formerly used residence halls, new housing will be constructed primarily on the east side of the campus.

As enrollment increases, there will be a need for academic and office spaces. The old Ag Nursing Building is being updated and converted into a new engineering building. The old Education Building will eventually be restored and used again for academic purposes.

New buildings will be consistent in design based on existing buildings, such as Old Main, Buffalo Courts, Cousins Hall and J.A. Hill Chapel.

There is also a plan to increase the amount of parking, which would be primarily on the edges of the campus. An analysis of campus parking showed that looking at other universities across the country, WTAMU is average in its amount of spaces.

“We’re not at the high end and we’re not at the low end. We’re at the middle,” O’Brien said. “As we would expand the campus, we would have to expand the parking. The other thing this does show is we would be taking some of the parking on the interior and pushing it out. That would keep us at a ratio of parking spaces of faculty and students.”

Energy efficiency is also part of the master plan. New buildings will be placed out of hot spots, which increases energy costs. An abundance of trees surrounding the exterior and interior of the campus will also provide wind breaks to decrease energy costs.

“Our predecessors did put up wind breaks in some of the appropriate places. Those wind breaks really help. In making these plans, we were told that a 10-foot tree gives 40 feet of protection from the wind. If we have trees around our campus, that really has an impact on the wind affecting our campus.”

Other plans include expanding Cornette Library, repurposing the Kilgore Research Center when those offices move to the renovated research lab at the old Palo Duro Hospital and convert the Box into a visitors center. An enrichment center is also expected to one day be built next to the First United Bank Center. That would serve as a convention center.

“As we get past 10,000 in enrollment, we will really see the need for more space and see these plans come to life,” O’Brien said.

To view the WTAMU master plan for the campus, go online to www.wtamu.edu.

Unfortunately, Dr. O'Brien doesn't seem to care about the parking situation on campus because he has his designated parking spot as close to Old Main as he can get (and doesn't have to pay a penny for it) so it doesn't affect him. He seems to keep making changes (making Russell Long Blvd non-parking from United to the FUBC) and wants higher student enrollment without considering the effects the current parking issues have on students now and adequately addressing those needs. He wants everyone to park outside of the campus perimeter and walk all over campus which would be fine if there were enough parking spots on campus that students (paying $40 for a permit) and faculty/staff (paying $50 for a permit) are having to pay for. Parking lots east of ANS, east of the AC, and east of the Dining Hall are being taken by the construction contractors and their storage buildings eliminating numerous valuable parking spots. He wants students, faculty and staff to park at the FUBC and take the shuttle - has he dealt with that headache in the mornings, afternoons and evenings – and can he even tell you when the shuttle will be there to pick you up? There are not even enough parking spaces on campus for the students that are required to live on campus and he wants to build more residence halls! Everyone has to answer to someone and this headache is only going to grow until people rally around and demand change!

Let me simplify it further. You cannot keep expanding the operational capacity of........... well anything without proper infrastructure. Quick poll question: If you had the means to build a 10 bedroom home, how many bathrooms would (should) you build? It seems they want to turn WT into a mansion with a half bath. It's already annoying and it won't work much longer. They will say that they are building a new parking lot near the main entrance of campus, but apparently that will be canceled out by all the spaces they want to cover in grass and trees. I also agree with the comment about the construction vehicles. It's a very real problem. Why don't they have to shuttle to campus every day? I walked past eight construction vehicles parked in my permitted areas on my way to class the other day. My car, meanwhile, was in a residential area not controlled by the WT parking Gods, therefore rendering my $40 parking pass irrelevant on two fronts. If you expect to attract more students, you had better learn how to treat them.

And just how many college grads did these people employ as opposed to their field hands? Look at DCP - how many field hands verses how many office hands? Come on, in TCU major companies have call centers set up to employ the college student. Are they getting a degree in " CAll Center " ?

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I think most of the people in the offices downtown were college grads.

I've heard that Mesa Petroleum had about 300 people in those 2 buildings.

And Corporate System on Ross used to be a major employer of WT CIS grads before they were bought and downsized.

Also...the IT department at Pantex has been greatly downsized from what it was back in the 80's and early 90's.